Local Rescue Worker One Of Many Suffering The Adverse Health Effects Of 9/11 Effort

Spencer’s Bill Landes Continues To Fight An Unknown ‘WTC’ Illness

by Michael Stanley Staff Writer

Rescue workers in New York City search Ground Zero days following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. (Photo by Bill Landes) (Part Two of Two)

It’s now been more than a year since Bill Landes could go to work as a fireman at the Indianapolis International Airport. The Spencer man is one of more than 6,000 responders to Ground Zero days following September 11, 2001 who continue to suffer the adverse health effects from inhalation of toxic dust and fumes.

Thousands of tons of debris from the twin tower collapse dispersed more than 2,500 contaminants into the atmosphere. With only small, paper masks offered through the first several days, first responders were subject to 70 percent suffering illnesses from the dust.

“I became very ill, starting about a year ago. They can’t find out what the cause of it is locally, but I’m now involved with a program with the World Trade Center and they think that what I have is World Trade Center related,” Landes explained. “I have severe gastrointestinal problems and severe diarrhea constantly... in the last year I’ve lost 65 pounds. I’m not able to work; I’m on disability right now. I was a full-time firefighter at the Indianapolis International Airport. I haven’t worked since last October and have been in the hospital several times. I went to the Cleveland Clinic and was evaluated up there, but they couldn’t find anything. They were going to send me to the Mayo Clinic but they said they couldn’t do anything more than the Cleveland Clinic.”

Indiana Task Force One Logistics Manager Bill Landes receives a warm greeting from his wife, Frances, at Monument Circle in Indianapolis after the team made its way back from Ground Zero in September of 2001. (Courtesy Photo) Landes is now one of many involved in an ongoing monitoring program at Mount Sinai Medical Center where Medical Director Stephe M. Levin has found personnel who inhaled air at Ground Zero lost 12 years of lung function. Nearly 40 percent of those involved in the same study lack health insurance.

Spencer resident Bill Landes (front row, fourth from left) and Indiana Task Force One traveled in three busses with two semis full of supplies to Ground Zero just hours following the terrorist attacks in New York City on September 11, 2001. (Courtesy Photo) “I don’t know what the future may hold. They’re now talking genetic mutation,” Landes noted. “I am not the only one in the system who has this particular problem – United States wide there are about 500 of us who were there that are suffering the same.”

Although President Barack Obama enacted the James Zadroga Act on January 2, 2011, the bill does not extend the full extent of medical coverage many believe should be given to first responders.

Demolished vehicles in lower Manhattan were stacked atop the remains of city busses along street sides to make room for emergency vehicles and heavy equipment at Ground Zero. (Photo by Bill Landes) The bill provides $1.8 billion for medical costs relating to 9/11 specific illnesses and $2.7 billion to compensate victims for associated losses. However, cancer is not covered despite new research from the Fire Department of New York and Chief Medical Officer Dr. David Prezant. He says his study proves that responders are 19 percent more likely to encounter cancer in their lifetimes.

Dr. Prezant recently told CNN Chief Medical Corespondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta that particles causing what is now widely known as “World Trade Center Lung Disease” were rough edged, causing a burning sensation for responders. He said the effects are like sandpaper in the lungs.

The study of 9,000 Ground Zero firefighters found 263 cases of cancer, compared to 153 cases of nonexposed firefighters with cancer.

The Environmental Protection Agency reportedly cleared the air at Ground Zero on September 18, 2001 without proper testing being finalized. Six weeks would pass before proper air respirators were provided to responders, who were unable to escape from the clinging of the yellowish dust.

“The federal government, in my opinion, is not as actively involved in this as I feel they should be. There was finally a bill introduced into law that became effective in July 1 of this year,” Landes said. “It’s called the Zadroga Act and it puts funds out there to help not only the responders, but the people who were around there and lived there. There is still a lot of denial on the part of a lot of organizations. I have several friends on the New York City Fire Department as a result of 10 years ago that I keep in contact with. Several have died with various types of cancers; there are thousands of us who have varying degrees of repository trouble. We were exposed to some very dangerous chemicals as a result of that collapse – ground up glass, concrete – and we were actually inhaling human bodies because those people were pulverized. The worst time was during the actual collapse itself.”

Ten years later, Landes can still vividly recall his time sifting through rubble while still having hope of finding a survivor.

“It was so disorganized. We had health officials and doctors saying wear this kind of respirator, wear this kind of respirator. We actually found out later on that for the first three or four days we were wearing the wrong respirators, so it didn’t matter if we had one on or not, basically,” Landes concluded. “The other problem was that it was so chaotic and noisy that if I wanted to talk to you, I had to take my respirator off. So I don’t know what my future is actually going to hold, I’m just playing it one day at a time.”

Landes went on to serve with Indiana Task Force One for a few years after 9/11, but has since resigned his post and remains close to his home in rural Spencer.

“I kind of decided I wasn’t sure if I wanted to keep doing it,” Landes said. “I figure that I lost over 300 firefighter brothers, not to mention the police officers, all of the civilians lost and people displaced from there and the Pentagon – that’s just hard to cope with.”

There are still thousands more who responded to help shortly after the attacks that Tuesday morning. Many responders suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, nearly a third have asthma and 40 percent have Gastroesophagel Reflux Disease.

The average decline of lung capacity per year for a 40-yearold man is 30 milliliters per year, however, the average decline for a 9/11 responder is 670 milliliters per six months, 30 to 40 times the amount.

“There are thousands of men and women in this country who tell people on a daily basis that they were at the World Trade Center and they worked at Ground Zero, and they were not,” Landes said. “I know there were people here who went, but they supported outlying fire departments. They may have been in or around New York City, but I’ll almost guarantee they weren’t at Ground Zero. I just met a guy in Ohio this past weekend who said he was at Ground Zero. He said he helped at a New Jersey fire department. I told him, ‘Don’t you ever tell anybody that again, because you’re a liar.’ It bothers us all, because we have all ran into people from time to time who say that and there is a difference.”

Despite the complications, loss and heartache associated with his ten-day deployment to Ground Zero ten years ago, Landes has fond memories of his time with his fellow emergency workers.

“We needed timber, so they were asking where we could get treated lumber and one of the police officers said there was a Lowes about a mile up the road. He told us to bring our two flatbed semis, it was about three o’clock in the morning so he radioed in to have them contact the manager,” Landes recalled. “Well, nobody showed up. We sat there for 30 minutes and then the police officer said, ‘Does anybody have any bolt cutters?’ So somebody ran back and got some, he cut the chains, pulled the semis in and he and one of our guys ran the forklifts... they loaded all of the lumber they could get. We left and he left a note on the back door that said, ‘Thank you!’ So I was a part of a robbery... we probably stole $25,000 worth of lumber. The next day the manager saw the note and said it was fine. But a lot of people did things like that, gave things and asked for nothing in return — that’s America.”